November 2, 2016

Nearly 1.3 million New Mexicans registered to vote

Almost 1.3 million New Mexicans registered to vote in time to cast ballots this year.

That is an increase of nearly 35,000 voters since 2012, the last presidential election, but up just under 3,000 votes since the 2014 midterms (over 100,000 voter registrations were removed from voter rolls in early 2015 as part of a regular removal of inactive voters).

These numbers come from the Secretary of State’s office.

Of the 1,289,019 registered voters, 28,446 registered between Sept. 30 and the Oct. 11 deadline. Anyone who registered to vote after Oct. 11 is not eligible to vote in this year’s elections.

Much of the increase since 2014 came from minor party and decline-to-state voters. Of the 34,452 voters registered since then, 26,835 are not part of either major party. During that same time, 3,592 Democrats registered to vote and 4,025 more Republicans registered to vote.

In the final two weeks of registration, 10,853 more New Mexicans registered as not part of either major party, while 10,002 more Democratic registrations were added and 7,612 new Republicans.

The percentage of Democrats and Republicans dropped from 2012. For Democrats, the percentage dropped from 47.51 percent ahead of the 2012 elections to 46.64 percent ahead of the 2014 elections and to 46.52 percent as of Oct. 11 of this year. For Republicans, the percentages dropped from 31.55 percent in 2012 to 31.17 percent in 2014 to 31.02 percent as of Oct. 11 of this year.

At the same time, the percentage of those who are parts of neither major party rose from 20.93 percent in 2012 to 22.19 percent in 2014 and 22.46 percent as of Oct. 11 of this year.

Early Voting

Early and absentee voting continued this week and reached 24.88 percent turnout by the end of Monday’s voting, with several days early voting left.

According to the numbers—as of end of voting Monday—320,679 New Mexicans have voted. Of those, 162,338 (50.62 percent) are Democrats, 114,678 (35.76 percent) are Republicans and 43,663 (13.62 percent) are not part of either major party.

Both Democrats and Republicans are outperforming their voter registration in early and absentee voting, while decline-to-state and third party voters are lagging behind.

Each day since early voting expanded on Oct. 22, Democrats have led the way in votes cast either early in-person votes or returned absentee.

Early in-person voting ends this Saturday, and absentee ballots must be returned by close of polls on Nov. 8.

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Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and one of the original hires at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.
A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.